


Witches In the Family Tree

by pixiealtaira



Series: Kurtoberfest 2016 [5]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23680672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiealtaira/pseuds/pixiealtaira
Summary: Kurtoberfest day 5: WitchesKurt has a difficult assignment.
Relationships: Adam Crawford/Kurt Hummel
Series: Kurtoberfest 2016 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694098
Kudos: 25





	Witches In the Family Tree

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first posting of this little fic. This prompt has six other takes that are not finished at all...this is the only one finished.

Kurt Hummel knew his dad’s family had been from Germany, but had immigrated to the United States in 1870s. His dad imparted that much to him the one time he had to make a family tree in grade school. His dad also told him his mother’s family had lived in Maine a long time but had lived in someplace like Massachusetts or Connecticut before that.

That was seriously really all he had to go on to start his screenwriting assignment.

Kurt threw himself into Adam’s arms when he made it to Adam’s place at the end of the day.

“What type of assignment is this anyway? I just don’t see the point. ‘Find a Relative (dead) and Write a One Act play or two scenes focusing on said relative in their proper time and place.’ Why?” Kurt groaned.

“It is about research,” Adam responded. “It’s about creating a historically accurate image…at least enough of one to send to an audience. The reason they do it with family members is that there is less potential legality issues.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Adam, I know nothing.”

“Do you have names? Places of birth? Where someone lived?” Adam asked.

“My dad has a sister named Mildred and an Aunt named Mildred. My grandmother’s name was Willadean. The only reason I know that is because there is an old Disney movie that has the name in the title and my mom said that my grandma Hummel’s name was Willadean and that she baked pies and that she had wanted to name my dad Hans, but his dad put his foot down and refused. Oh and my grandpa Hummel went by Henry. I assume they lived in Ohio, because some of the people my dad worked with knew my grandpa.”

“How Long did they live in Ohio?” Adam asked.

“No clue. I do know that my dad’s family came from the Germany area to the USA in the 1870s, not the 1940s and they aren’t Jewish. That much I got out of my dad once when I was little.”

“And your mother’s family?”

“My mom has a little brother named Andrew, who was supposed to take care of me if something had happened to my dad. My grandmother’s name was Roxanne Loveall, which my mom said she suspected was actually a stage name…at least the last name part. My grandfather was Arthur Bates and his family was from Maine and prominent in the area. He met my grandmother at a beauty pageant and they were married three weeks later. My grandmother enjoyed blowing through my grandfather’s money and doting on my Uncle Andrew….but not enough to keep her from sending him off to boarding school at age 8 like she had with my mom. Oh, and my grandmother had a tissy fit over my grandfather’s will because she did not get the bulk of the inheritance and what she got was managed so she only received the same allowance she’d been getting her whole married life to my grandfather. I only remember that because it was seriously a tissy tantrum, and my mom told me if I ever threw a fit like that I’d be grounded to my room for two weeks. I mean, the lady was throwing things at others in the room.”

“So you went to the will reading of your grandfather?” Adam asked.

“Yes…it was in Maine. A town sort of on the coast. We saw boats. I think he had been into shipping? Maybe? And advertising? I don’t know…there were more people there than just my grandmother and uncle and mom. My grandmother said three things to my mother the whole time, and one was to ask if she was still whoring herself out to the lowbred lowlife. I was only 6; I can’t remember it too well, but I remember those two things…oh and we bought a lobster off a dock. We drove there though.”

“I think we have enough to start on.” Adam said. “I’ll help. I still can’t believe you know nothing more than that about your family.”

Kurt shrugged. “I don’t think most of them liked each other. Dad likes his Aunt Mildred, but she spends her time island hopping in the Caribbean with the man she met and married when she was 65 while she was at Disneyland. But Dad said his Aunt Mildred was not on speaking terms with his mom. I’m not even sure if his Aunt Mildred is related to his mom or dad. Dad’s mom never forgave him for marrying my mom and my Aunt Mildred wants to have me exorcised as I am obviously filled to the brim with demons and maybe even Satan himself. Besides Dad’s mom died when I was like two.”

Adam hugged Kurt. “Shall we go off and start hunting now, or should I cheer you up first and we start tomorrow?”

Kurt sighed. “We’d better go now. With what we have to start with it might take the whole two weeks to find a relative, instead of complete the project.” Kurt grumbled.

Adam didn’t take them anywhere Kurt expected him to. Adam took them to Hal’s apartment. Kurt knew Hal had been an Apple when Adam started them and now the man worked as a set designer at one of the big theaters. Kurt had only met him twice.

Adam laughed at Kurt’s confusion and hugged him tight. “Hal’s family is Mormon. He hasn’t been back to church since he left home, but his mother has him do family research for her all the time. Write out names and any dates you know and any place names you can think so attached to those names and we’ll let him show us how it’s done.”

“Did you have to do anything like this when you did this assignment?” Kurt asked.

Adam laughed. “Oh, heavens no. I have been brought up on stories of my family from the time I was in nappies. I was weaned on the tales of intrigue and scandal. There were smugglers and illegitimate children of royal lines and handsome dashing captains who fought bravely in foreign wars. Supposedly there was even a pirate.”

Kurt groaned. “With my luck the most exciting thing will be my dad who is a tire shop owner turned congressman who ran on arts in schools and gay rights in conservative Ohio.”

“Dude! Your dad is Congressman Hummel? That man is the bomb!” Hal exclaimed.

“You have heard of him?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, he spoke at an event not too long ago about the importance of the Arts in schools, especially music programs. He also talked about making sure to keep classes like home economics and auto shop and other skills based classes and about making sure they were open to all students and encouraged for all students. He is a great speaker, very animated and fascinating to watch.” Hal said, as he sat down at his computer and started opening programs in different windows all over the place. “Pull up chairs…I have no idea how long this might take.”

“Like two months ago?”

“How’d you know?”

Kurt grunted. “He said he’d come up just to see me since he hadn’t seen me in a while. That man! I bet he didn’t mention his favorite response to classes not allowing all students.”

“What was his favorite response?” Adam asked.

“Well, when the auto-shop teacher refused to let me take auto shop when I was a freshman, saying I was too small and delicate and not manly enough, my dad threatened to take a blow torch to the school. That was his favorite threat.” Kurt said.

Adam laughed. “I can see that, after all he threatened me with a shotgun.”

“I am sorry about that. You shouldn’t’ worry too much though, he doesn’t actually know where they are unless he’d gone out and bought a new gun…or made Carole tell.” Kurt said.

“And you know where they are?” Adam asked.

“Of course.” Kurt answered. “I was the one who found them a nice safe place to be when we changed houses after my dad and Carole got married. Carole didn’t want Finn to be able to find them and I wasn’t fond of the idea of my dad actually following through on the threats he was making due to the extreme bulling I was subjected to.”

“This around the same time you had to change schools?” Adam asked.

Kurt nodded.

“You had to change schools?” Hal asked.

“Yes,” Kurt said. “I ended up at a private school we couldn’t afford for about four months. Then all the funds we’d managed were exhausted and the situation at my normal school had changed enough that we didn’t try to force more money out of nowhere. Not to mention it was not a choice that made my dad happy. My mom had been very firm in her never private school rhetoric, apparently.”

“Your mom?” Hall asked, typing away.

“She died when I was young. I don’t remember her saying I shouldn’t go to a private school, but her mom sent her and her brother to private boarding schools when they were very young for their whole school careers.”

Hal just made a hmm sound and typed more.

“So, like how much a tree do you want filled in?” Hall asked after a few more minutes, although not many.

“What do you mean?” Adam asked.

“Well, Kurt’s grandfather on his mother’s side…the one that he went to the funeral of…was a well-known man really. Rather prominent in the area. The problem being that he sort of removed himself from the spot-light after the scandal that occurred surrounding his marriage to his second wife. He moved from the traditional family home, leaving it to his oldest son of his first marriage, to a smaller seaside home in Freeport. Apparently his second wife was younger than three of his first four kids, and they didn’t take well to their father marrying a young beauty pageant contestant that he met while on the first outing they sent him on after his first wife’s death. And his second wife detested his first family and refused to have anything to do with them. So your grandfather basically had two lives…one he spent with his first wife’s family and one he spent with his second wife and family. I mean, there are pictures of him and his four kids and their families at places like Paris and Disneyland and Italy in the society papers of Portland and Lewiston. Then a few weeks later there would be picture of him and his second wife and their kids on a cruise or in New York.”

Kurt snorted. “That sounds about right. I don’t remember much about my grandmother, but I do remember she had all these ideas what a wealthy family looked like and she made her family into that image, however she would only go so far with it. She hated foreign things and people and places. I remember my mom said once she decided she just had to go to the Caribbean like all the neighbors had been going and so they went for a week and her mother complained the whole time. And she fired mom’s nanny because she spoke French to her…of course she’d spoken French to my mother for six years by that time, so mom said it was silly.”

“You mother had a nanny?” Adam asked.

“Oh, yes. They had a nanny for mom and a housekeeper and a maid and a gardener. My grandmother married a man of wealth so she wouldn’t have to do those type of things herself. The nanny was a young girl from some part of the state that was very small and mostly French speaking who was earning the money to go to college. She and my mom actually stayed in contact.”

“Anyway…the point being that that line of your family is very well documented, really. There are a few quirks.”

“Let’s look at the quirks. We need something we can write a character on.”

“The story of a man being sent off on holiday by his kids a year after his wife died because his kids thought he was moping and then ending up marrying a beauty pageant participate who was competing at the resort his kids booked him at wouldn’t make a good enough scene.” Hal asked.

Kurt rolled his eyes. “I am sure it would, if not that than the kids who sent dad off finding out he came back married would certainly be interesting...however, that is too close.”

Hall chuckled. “If you’d like I’ll print you out info on your grandfather’s other kids. I mean seriously, these people put all announcements in their local papers. I think some of your grandfathers other grandchildren are older than your mom.”

“Yeah, that would be good I guess.” Kurt said.

“So, quirks…” Hall said, typing and clicking.

“Oh, here’s one…A Bates back in 1900 lost at sea, declared dead, his wife remarried his best friend, and then he showed up again three years later and they all seemed to have lived together after that.” Hal said.

“Hmm…maybe.” Kurt said.

Hal continued clicking and typing. “There is a child who disappears after joining the Mormons, I’ll have to let my mom know that one. Hmm…a child who is added to the family when they moved from one town to another…just appears at like age six. That’s a bit weird. Oh! Wait! This just might be too cool! I need to check another database.”

Kurt leaned forward to see if he could figure out what Hal was excited about, but couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was looking at.

“What do you think you have?” Adam said.

“So, at one point in time there was a colony that was called New Haven and it was very religious. Very puritan. Anyway in 1651, before the colony’s witchcraft law was even in place, there were murmurs of witchcraft and one lady was even brought up on charges. They had already hung people nearby in Connecticut. Your ancestors here, a John and Anne Williams left New Haven on the eve before it was rumored their neighbor was to have turned them in for witchcraft. They moved to Massachusetts. There their oldest daughter, Alice, marries James Bates. They leave again as rumors of witchcraft start flying around where they are living. No one knows where they and the youngest child moved to, other than south.”

“Kurt, darling, your ancestors were witches!” Adam exclaimed.

Hal laughed. “Or just not puritan enough, or Quakers or secretly catholic. They were apparently quite wealthy and maybe they had not been abiding by all the laws and regulations at home. They might have secretly been celebrating Christmas!”

“But…they could be witches.” Kurt said slowly. “Had they lived there long?”

Hal pulled up another database. “Not really. They seem to have settled in New Haven as a merchant in about 1645. Williams ran a dry goods store. They had three servants, it isn’t listed if they are indentured or not. They were quite well off. They also seemed to have come from the islands that were British owned.”

Kurt smiled. “I think I can do something with this.”

“You don’t’ want to do anymore research?” Adam asked.

“Nope.” Kurt said. “I mean I guess I might like to know how and where Hummels come from and such, but I’ve got something I can work with that is far enough back to not mess with my mind.”

“I can find out that for you.” Hal said. “As long as you let me read your scenes.”

Kurt smiled. “Deal.”

Three weeks later Hal opened his mail to find a one act play by Kurt Hummel called “The Flight From Death” and subtitled “The Last day In Boston” which documented the day Anne said goodbye to Alice and left her a book for her to keep safe until Anne could come back for it. The play ended with Alice opening the book and letting out demons.


End file.
